Sunday, July 08, 2007

I am, always have been, a bit perverse.While there are times and occasions, when I am just as influenced as the next person by peer pressure, there are times when I fly in the face of it.

Take the Clapitos. I didn't much like it when I first saw it --but, then, I don't ever like scarves wrapped around my neck, not even in the dead of winter. But once it became popular, it was a death knell.

Any saving grace it might have had, was done in by popularity.. It become so popular, I'll never knit it.

Same, too, with some yarns. Everyone Ohh's and Ahh's over Koigu. I love the way it looks in the skein, but, then, I always like multi color yarns in the skein—even Red Heart colorsways can look beautiful in the skein. It's how they work up that disappoints me.

It could have been sour grapes on my part. I have a huge stash (much of it from better times) and a limited budget. $10 a skein Koigu? With 2 skeins needed for pair of socks.. Bah, humbug. Over priced, over rated.Still, last year, when presented the opportunity to snag some Koigu, as a gift, I didn't hesitate..It is soft and lovely. But its been a bane! I started socks with the blue Koigu last December, and no amount of will power can get me to finish them. I've knit the cuff, turned the heel, started the instep. And every time I pick them up, I feel like it is a chore to knit them.The color way is soft, and not too spirally,--I really hate the spirally stripes that a lot of hand painted yarns create--but I persevere in being perverse. I just don't like them. There is something about me that is perverse. Everyone might be enamored by Koigu. But I am not everyone, I am me.Enter Cervinia—this yarn just entranced me. It's pushing the season to knit such fall colors, but I love it.I've added some Cervinia Calzetteria in black for the toe --Don't you love the neat cast on?--The fine details of the raised increase for the shaping? --What? You can't see the detail in the photo?Nor can you see them in person!That black is such a deep black its almost impossible to see the detail in direct sun light!But they are there. The heel is going to be the same black, and there will be narrow some black in the cuff too. And the stripes? Lovely!And there are some subtler stripes to follow..

Finally, I have re-dyed some of the garish (even by my taste which runs to bright clear colors with high contrast) Lion Brand Magic Stripes.The LB, bought from a clearance bin at $0.50 for the ball, and redyed with $10.95 (make that almost $12 after taxes!) a bottle dye, is now a medially of dark blue stripes. I am not going to try to match up the stripes. It will be a case of divide and knit—let the stripes fall where they will.